Design
Kitchens
Finishes and specs
At Langham House Close, the flats’ original listed kitchens provide a legacy of Stirling and Gowan’s design. The thick minimalistic worktops were made out of solid Iroko wood and the sinks’ piping system was exposed. The cupboard and drawer units were finished in white paint and their rectangular handles were specified in solid Iroko wood with chamfered edges to match the main worktop. Depending on the kitchen, either three or four rows of white rectangular tiles acted as a back-splash surface. The original pillar taps are quite a rare find and were manufactured by John Bolding & Sons - Grosvenor Works, a London company founded in 1822 and wound up in the mid-1960s. Its historic building on the corner of Davies Street and South Molton Lane in Mayfair is still beautifully preserved.
Few of the flats at Langham House Close still retain the original listed kitchens and hardware. Some general drawings of the three variants of the original kitchens are illustrated below. If you have recently purchased one of the flats and are interested in rebuilding or restoring your listed kitchen, please get in touch with us to obtain the finishes and technical details of the original design in more detail.
Type 1
Three-Storey Block
All 18 flats of the three-storey block (Block 1) have the same kitchen design. The storage units of this configuration comprised a cupboard and a set of four drawers. The cupboard door was mounted with two stainless steel butt hinges. Four rows of white tiles function as a back-splash surface.
The two photos below show the three-storey block kitchens in two different flats when first occupied.
Type 2
Two-Storey Block
This variant can be found in eight out of the 12 flats in the two two-storey blocks (four in Block 2 and four in Block 3). The kitchen worktop is shorter and positioned against the servery unit, forming an L-shape corner facing the dining area. The shorter kitchen worktop only allowed a single set of four drawers. The back-splash surface had three rows of tiles rather than four, as they were aligned with the bottom edge of the window recess positioned above the kitchen worktop.
Type 3
Two-Storey Block
This variant can be found in four of the 12 flats of the two two-storey blocks (two in Block 2 and two in Block 3). From the archive pictures, it can immediately be seen how the front face of the kitchen worktop had an irregular cut. The Iroko wood above the kitchen cupboard unit was cut thinner than in the other two variants and “stepped down” to its regular height near the sink, where the arrow is pointing in the picture below. At the end of the worktop a dedicated stove space and the wall-mounted servery unit closed off the kitchen.
